Trending Now

You are here

Transplant recipient 'pays it forward'

Five years ago on the 10th of December Jamie Warren got a new chance at life through a double lung transplant. Warren was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. At 28 she was told she only had 6 months to live and deemed an unfit candidate for the transplant until her lungs had just about taken their last breath. With her lungs functioning at only 11 percent her husband made the decision to put her on a ventilator while the doctors held an emergency meeting to decide her fate. Three days later, Warren was granted a miracle.
"I shut the door so I can be alone . . . although I am never alone," Warren said. "I have a constant companion that is my source of life. I stand in front of the mirror and see me the way everyone else does; a very sick young woman. I see the oxygen tubing which I hate but I am thankful for because it is my companion, my source of life. I take all my clothes off, I see my naked, weakened body which fights to keep from becoming tiny and frail.
"I can count the bumps on my spine along with every rib." Warren continued. "My back is rounded and my shoulders are thrown forward as I desperately struggle for relief as I take in shallow breaths." Those are the words Warren wrote about her life prior to the transplant.
Her life is completely different now with lungs that can take in full breaths of clean air, lungs that are operating at 94 percent. Warren has taken on the world and is giving back.
"That was my life before my Double Lung Transplant . . . on Dec. 10th 2007 my whole life changed because a woman I didn’t know was an organ donor. She became my hero and she was the answer to thousands of prayers. " said Warren.
Now Warren wants to share her story and she wants to make a difference. Putting together duffle bags of goodies is Warren's way of "paying it forward"to recipients of transplants. She has supported her husband in a career, and began a career in acting herself. Warren's video can be found at www.transplantliving.org/jamie-warren/ where you can also cast your vote. Read more about Jamie Warren in the January-February edition of Bingham Magazine.